Dramatic scenes on Mount Leinster for staged plane crash
An estimated 150 people took on a major emergency exercise simulation staged on Mount Leinster last Wednesday
RESIDENTS living near Mount Leinster must have been wondering what was going on last week as local roads were closed and the area was flooded with emergency services.
These were the dramatic scenes on the mountain as 150 emergency service workers responded to a staged plane crash in one of the biggest major-incident exercises ever held in Ireland. The training drill saw a 60-foot aircraft fuselage placed on Mount Leinster in a crash scenario designed to test the South East Region emergency services in Carlow, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny.
Fire crews, An Garda Síochána, the Health Service Executive and local authorities were involved in the simulation. The scenario was brought to life with real fire and actors playing the injured, who were carried on stretchers to waiting ambulances. “This is one of the largest-scale major emergency incident exercises in Ireland for some time,” said Ben Woodhouse, exercise director and assistant chief fire officer of Carlow Fire and Rescue Service. “Fortunately, major emergencies such as these are not frequent, but this event has been identified as one that could potentially occur and the southeast region’s principal response agencies continue to work together on interagency preparedness and response. These exercises provide invaluable opportunities for cohesive and collaborative interagency working, because if a service operates in a silo, solely focused on their own area of responsibility and resources, it can affect the overall response to those in need of assistance."
Mary Rose Fitzgerald, HSE emergency management officer said the exercise was an opportunity to ensure the inter-operability of emergency plans, following three years of emergency management training and planning.
